Love's Labor Lost (ER)
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(July 2017) |
| "Love's Labor Lost" | |
|---|---|
| ERepisode | |
| Episodeno. | Season 1 Episode 19 |
| Directed by | Mimi Leder |
| Written by | Lance Gentile |
| Production code | 456618 |
| Original air date | March 9, 1995 |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"Love's Labor Lost"is the nineteenth episode of thefirst seasonof the American medical dramaER.It first aired on March 9, 1995, onNBCin the United States. The episode was written byLance Gentileand directed byMimi Leder.The episode received acclaim, with many deeming it the best of the series, and some going as far as to deem it one of the greatest television episodes of all time. "Love's Labor Lost" earned five Emmy Awards (Writing, Directing, Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mi xing ) and several other awards and nominations.
Plot
[edit]Dr. Mark Greene encounters the case of a pregnant woman suffering from what he initially thinks is aurinary tract infection,due to protein in the urine, but what is actuallyeclampsia.With the obstetrics attending unavailable, he decides to try to deliver her baby in the ER, first through vaginal delivery. Motionless, after aMcRobert's maneuverfails, he's forced to perform a crash c-section with tragic results. Elsewhere, a teenager is accidentally poisoned by insecticides and Dr. Peter Benton has to deal with the aftermath of his mother's fall.
Reception
[edit]In its original broadcast, "Love's Labor Lost" finished first in the ratings for the week of March 6–12, 1995, with a 24.2Nielsen ratingand 40 percent audience share. It was the highest rated show on NBC that week with episodes ofSeinfeldandFriendssecond and third respectively.[1]In 1997,TV Guideranked it as the third in its list of the100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.[2]In 2009, it ranked the episode sixth.[3]The show's producers also consider it to be one ofER's best episodes, withJohn Wellssaying he holds it up as "an example to everyone involved creatively of what the best of the show could be."[4]However, Wells also noted that the story maintained a traditional structure, and that the episode would not stand out if the rest of the episodes were like "Love's Labor Lost" and other "most talked-about" episodes.[5]
Ray Richmond ofLos Angeles Daily Newspraised the episode, calling it "one of the rare instances when network television stands tall as true art".[6]
The episode earned writer Lance Gentile aPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Seriesat the47th Primetime Emmy Awards,[7]in addition to aWriters Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Dramaat the 49th Writers Guild of America Awards.[8]The episode also earned Mimi Leder aPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Seriesat the 47th Primetime Emmy Awards[9]as well as a nomination forDirectors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Seriesat the48th Directors Guild of America Awards.Colleen Flynnearned a nomination forPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Seriesfor her performance in this episode, which was her only appearance in the TV series. The episode earned a number of other Emmys: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Series – Single Camera Production for Randy Jon Morgan and Rick Tuber; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Editing for a Series for Walter Newman (supervising sound editor), John Voss Bonds Jr. (sound effects editor), Rick Camera (sound effects editor), Steven M. Sax (sound effects editor), John F. Reynolds (dialogue editor), Catherine Flynn (dialogue editor), Thomas A. Harris (adr editor), Susan Mick (music editor), Casey J. Crabtree (Foleyartist), and James Bailey (Foley artist); as well as Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mi xing for a Drama Series for Russell C. Fager (production sound mixer), Michael Jiron (sound effects mixer), Allen L. Stone (dialogue mixer) and Frank Jones (music mixer). The episode also won anAmerican Cinema Editors Awardfor Best Edited One-Hour Series for Television for Randy Jon Morgan and Rick Tuber.
References
[edit]- ^Grahnke, Lou (March 15, 1995)."New 'Hope' Scores Big In Premiere".Chicago Sun-Times.Archived fromthe originalon March 13, 2018.RetrievedMarch 12,2018.
- ^"Special Collector's Issue: 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time".TV Guide.June 28 – July 4, 1997.
- ^"TV Guide's 100 Best Episodes of All Time".WordPress.Archived fromthe originalon 2011-10-01.
- ^Joyce Eng (2015-03-08)."ER: An Oral History of the Powerful, Groundbreaking" Love's Labor Lost "".TVGuide.Retrieved2015-03-09.
- ^Hill, Michael E. (September 21, 1997)."Peacock Rollout".Washington Post.RetrievedMarch 22,2021.
- ^Richmond, Ray (March 16, 1995)."Viewers' eyes still haven't dried after last week's 'ER' episode".Austin American-Statesman:30.RetrievedMarch 22,2021.
- ^"47th Primetime Emmys Nominees and Winners – Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series".Emmys.Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.September 10, 1995.Retrieved20 September2016.
- ^"The Writers Guild Foundation Library Catalog".Writers Guild of America.Archived fromthe originalon 2012-02-26.Retrieved2012-03-17.
- ^"Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series Nominees / Winners 1995".Television Academy.September 10, 1995.RetrievedMarch 22,2021.